Although I suspect most readers have now got used to the variability in definitions in our field, to the point where it has, thankfully, dropped from being the regular debating point it used to be on TTA (eg here, here and here), valiant souls occasionally pop up to continue seeking to impose uniformity. The most recent is this paper from the European Connected Health Alliance and Wragge & Co, which has an excellent justification for its publication:

In our legal opinion, a more important distinction with these definitions is whether the products and/or services involved are regulated by telecommunication and technology laws and/or health laws. To answer these legal issues comprehensively you need clear legal definitions which do not exist either in the UK or on a pan European (EU) basis.

…which seems a very good point that I suspect many of us had missed. (Perhaps more important for many readers, I guess standardisation would make it easier for recruiters to find the best people to invite for interview from LinkedIn, too, now that that database has become the recognised database for professionals in many fields).

It is certainly a good collation of views on many of the terms we often use. There is much good stuff in here too (more…)